


Broken Brothers

by Phi_Unit



Category: Sonic the Comic, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Technically a Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2019-06-26 13:37:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15664269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phi_Unit/pseuds/Phi_Unit
Summary: The Brotherhood of Metallix has fallen, all destroyed with a push of a button. Well.. not ALL destroyed, but the survivors don't feel very lucky. For Metallix 274, he wished he died back there in their universe with all the others, but 10-961 is still with him-they still have a chance for revenge.. Now if only his brother's data hadn't glitched -Maybe then he wouldn't have tried to befriend their greatest enemy; Sonic the Hedgehog.





	1. Fall of the Brotherhood

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Redoing the entirety of this series since over the years I’ve thought more and more of how I wanted to continue it. When I first made it I didn’t really think about how to go about it and really had no plot. Now I do, and I’m ready for round two(or three…) as I get back into writing!  
> Based off the 72th issue of Egmont Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic (STC) that ended the Metallix Saga (which you can read for free here ~Readcomiconline.to~ since well… good luck finding physical copies)  
> (*Some Spoilers Ahead*)

High in the sky, the Miracle Planet cast its shadow on Mobius. It was no longer the peaceful planet it once was as the Brotherhood of Metallix had conquered and twisted it into metal over the month the Miracle Planet had disappeared from Mobius. The Alpha device, the device that turned everything it touched into metal, loomed like a tyrant on the little planet and now it had Mobius in its’ iron fist, too. All organic life, besides a few small pockets, had been snuffed out. And those small pockets would soon be gone, too for there was nothing to stop the Metallix Reign. By travelling back in time and making sure Kintobor never became Robotnik, the Metallix removed the only thing that could stop them; the self-destruct program. 

Turns out that was the only thing Robotnik designed for them. The rest was all thanks to Robotnik’s right-hand man, Grimer. Now with Robotnik (and therefore the program) gone, Mobius would forever be ruled by the Brotherhood.

…If not for a certain blue hedgehog.

With the help of the Chaotix crew and the Omni-Viewer, Sonic had travelled back in time to fix what the metallix had changed. And the Emperor Metallix was not happy to find they had succeeded.

Right before the gigantic red metallix’s eyes he could see Mobius returning to its disgustingly organic self. Even more frustrating was discovering the self-destruct device back in place. By design they were expressionless, yet all the other metallix in the room could feel his seething rage boiling through his circuits. 

Just then, the red pirated copy of the Omni-Viewer spat out a lone metallix; one that should’ve returned with two others. He was beaten, scratched, and dented from an obvious fight. This one here was personally responsible for failing to stop Sonic. All eyes turned to him, he who was the weak-link that could end the Brotherhood for failing his mission to guard the timelines.

“Brother 274… Report.” The Emperor’s said in a booming voice that echo across the room. It almost sounded like it came from all the metallix as a collective. 274 looked down, ashamed and ready to take whatever punishment he got as he told the Emperor what had happened. Sonic had brought along a strange device and promptly placed it on 144’s head. It had caused him to malfunction and destroy one of his own brothers, 596. 

After that, it all went downhill. 144 had attacked 274 which left him unable to stop Sonic and co from correcting the timeline. And no matter how hard he tried to stop his brother, to fix him, it was too late. 144 had offlined barely a minute later. 274 was all that was left.

There was silence in the room as everyone waited for the Emperor’s decision. This was a grave mistake for all of them, to underestimate Sonic’s knack of finding just the right way to defeat his foes. But the Emperor had to deal with something much more serious than a lone metallix’s failure. Sonic was obviously going to ask Robotnik questions. That only meant he would soon find out about the self-destruct program.

The Emperor knew he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. There was no time to decide a proper punishment. Though… 

“Get yourself repaired and then report to the head of the factory…” The Emperor declared. “I’ll be leading an assault to correct a mistake.” 274 nodded as he was glared at. He knew he caused that mistake and promptly rushed out in silence. He would be a fool to stay behind in case the Emperor changed his mind on such a lenient decision.

As 274 rushed past building after building where once a forest grew, his brothers raced by heading towards a single point; where 274 had just left. He paid them little attention, his objective was not theirs; he didn’t have the right to have theirs, not after such failure.

He shook his head; he needed to focus on what he needed to do now. 274 gingerly landed at a building that was next to the massive factory where everything was made. He’d be in the factory soon enough, but for now the repair shop was where he was headed. It was much smaller and much less busy, but important none the less. As 274 entered, he gave a huff out of his vents in annoyance. The place was busier than normal –some brothers having decided to get a quick check-up before the assault on Sonic. That left all the yellow plus mark-wearing brothers with their hands full. And the only “medic” left available was 122.

..Famous for his love of flowers and partly disowned because of it.

Only reason he was still around was because of just how extensive his knowledge went, with plants and metal. If you wanted a prisoner to talk, asked 122, he can put them on the brink of death, but never further. If you wanted repairs, you’d be fixed twice as fast compared to the other medics. Didn’t mean anyone with a choice would want to be repaired by him however.

“Here to be repaired 122” 274 said.

“Oh finally! I was beginning to wonder if you decided to go MIA.” 122 replied as he ambled over with all his tools at the ready. “And please, call me Tattoo.” 

Another irritating trait of his; Always wanting to be called by his informal name like a disgusting organic. They meant a completely different meaning here in the brotherhood and yet he tried to make it unbearably normal.

“Just get me fixed already.” 274 huffed out. The sooner this was over the sooner he could spend less time wasting time with this malfunctioning nutcase. 

“Still shaken from your brush with death I suppose?” Tattoo said was he began soothing bumps and pulling dents into place. 274 only huffed again. He didn’t want to admit it, but yes he was. Having to face their leader with the threat of a death sentence would scare anybody. 

274 listened no more after that. However, 122’s endless ramblings continued on even though his audience had tuned out. Thankfully, all repairs were done in less than a few minutes.

“Now hurry off to the factory survivor, don’t want to be scrapped for being late after all that.” Tattoo said as he finished touching up 274’s paintwork. One last huff and 274 dashed as quickly out of the building, and away from 122, as possible.

Some of the medic’s words stuck however, not many, but still. 274, besides his “long” service, hadn’t picked up an informal name. Survivor was sounding quite fitting, not many could screw up so utterly badly and not be scrapped. 274 decided then and there that Survivor would definitely be his informal name.

274 pushed the thought to the side for now now that he had arrived at the factory. It was a good 10 miles wide and long; and growing every day. Inside were many parts shifting in unison to create as many new brothers as fast, and as great, as possible. It was one of 274’s favorite places. Such an efficient place and despite the chaos, was utterly organized. Except… something was off.

Survivor looked around confused. The factory wasn’t running as fast nor as organized. His brothers working the machines usually focused and swift, were hesitating; Tense shoulders and nervous glances at one another. One was even shaking so bad his brothers nearby had to remove him from his station. There were also two of them saying good-bye to each other as if they may never see each other again. Survivor’s shoulders slumped. 

This was his fault.

If he was just a bit faster, just a bit stronger, none of his brothers would be so… frightened. He shouldn’t be alive right now. Survivor’s chest engine lightly whirled in distress, but he had orders so he continued on. He hurried off to meet the head of the factory. A quick ask of where he currently was was all he needed and soon he arrived at room 319 on the third, and top, floor.

The head of the factory was of a different model than the rest; more bulky with a visor like optic and nuclear chest engine. He was the prototype to the one who ended up throttled by Super Sonic. Only reason he wasn’t used was because he couldn’t properly use chaos energy like they intended for his design. That didn’t mean he didn’t have use however. Turns out he was phenomenal at leadership and keeping things in order. He outclassed the previous head of the factory in a very short amount of time.

“274?” He asked as 274 walked in. 274 merely nodded. No need for small talk. “You’ll be assigned to the very end of the manufacturing sector. You’re job is to detect any faulty new brothers and repair them.” 

Oh har har… 274 thought. The irony in that job couldn’t have been by accident. Survivor couldn’t deny it though, and rather politely accepted the position spot number and left.  
It didn’t take long to get to the spot and soon 274 started working. The job was mostly boring, but it was essential. No one wanted a faulty brother in their ranks (how 122 got past Survivor will never know). It was mostly scanning and passing, scanning and passing. The overhead conveyor that moved the new brothers along was going a bit slowly today, what with the big deciding battle going on soon. In fact, they should be at Robotnik’s citadel any moment now. His engine whirled nervously. No he had to focus on the task at hand! He had already gone through 30, that’s good. And no way could the Emperor fail… he couldn’t.. could NOT fail. Survivor wanted to fly off and get in at least get one punch.

But he could do nothing, but scan and pass. Survivor softly huffed, he was trying to not fail at this, but… everything still felt like too much. Scan and pass, scan and pass, scan and-  
“Rrrping! Rrrping! Anomaly detected.” The scanner slightly startled 274 to attention. The new brother, 10-961, had set off the scanner’s alarm. 274 quickly pulled 10-961 off the main conveyor and onto a siding. Bringing a portable version of the scanner over, 274 move it up and down the height of 10-961.

“Anomaly detected!” Survivor huffed angrily as the scanner failed to tell him what the anomaly was. “Anomaly detected!” He hoped this wasn’t a cruel joke that the emperor set up – to give him a malfunctioning scanner. He’d have to take 10-961 over to the testing rooms.

Survivor signaled a standby brother to temporarily take his spot while he dragged 10-961 along a pulley system towards the testing rooms. The testing rooms were labeled alpha, beta, delta, etc. rather than by number. There was never very many needed in the first place, very few brothers had any serious faults, fewer still that required complete and total shut down.

274 typed in the security code to test room Gamma, and hauled 10-961 to the middle of the room. Not knowing what to expect, 274 chained 10-961 to the floor from his wrists and ankles and put a special cap over top his brother’s chest engine; didn’t want him flying/running off. 

As it seems someone else tried to. Survivor made a mental note to have someone come in and clean this mess afterwards. Thankfully any debris was long since removed, but chips, burns, and scratches still needed to be patched up. 274 shook his head, but continued on. He quickly flipped open 10-961’s panel and punched in the code to activate him. Quickly afterwards, he darted to the door, next to the control panel it case things were REALLY bad.

It took a second, but 10-961 crimson eyes slowly lit up. 

“Greetings 10-961, I’m your brother 274. You’re here in room Gamma to be tested for malfunctions.” 274 stated plainly. 10-961 hadn’t exploded or showed signs of derangement, so that was good. But he seemed very confused… or at least curious maybe. “10-961?”

“Sorry..274.? I’m just…” 10-961 started slowly, but trailed off. Hmm.. Maybe his processor was having troubles running? That’s not good for any situation, might be a good place to start.

“Don’t apologize, let’s just get started and soon we’ll find the problem. If you become unstable and try to attack, I’ll be force to terminate you…” Survivor gestured towards the control panel. One flip of the switch and 10-961 would be crushed. “First, let’s test your agility..”

“I.. uh.. okay. What first?” 10-961 asked a little unsure. He felt sluggish and odd. He felt like he was missing something.. but what? He’d have to ask later, 274 had issued an order.  
So it began, first with testing of simple movements like catching a ball and tossing it back; then to complex equations and answers. They blazed though the process, both of them totally focused on finding the problem. Restraints were removed to do engine and movement tests. Then information on key details was next. 10-961 was… failing this endeavor.

“Recite information on the Sonic & co.” 274 requested.

“Sonic and who now?” 10-961 asked. Oh no…

“Uh.. okay how about Mobius?” 

“Who’s that?”

“Not who, what.” 274 felt concern rise. “How about the Brotherhood?”

“Is that a group? Wait is that us? I know you called me ‘brother’ before?” 274 was DEFINITELY concerned now, but at least he found the problem.

“It seems your data, which every brother has, is missing,” 274 said and then clarified. “And yes the brotherhood is us, you are the 10,961th brother created.”

“That’s a lot.”

“shush,” 274 said. “I’ll fetch the required information; this room will be locked until I get back.”

10-961 could do nothing but wait. There were too many questions though and one thing still seemed off. Hopefully they’d be answered by the time his brother got back. For now, 10-961 just scanned the room and daydreamed. He wonder what the outside of this place looked li-

“SHA-SHING” A bright flash enveloped the room.

…  
… …  
…10-961 uncurled himself from a ball and looked around. The noise and flash had startled him. He had no idea what in the world happened or if he was in danger. It wasn’t long before he noticed a group of golden floating rings. 10-961 was perplexed. What were these? Where had they come from? Did they do anything?

Slowly he crept towards them, intensely staring forwards in case they… they what? Leapt at him? Suddenly sprout eyes and claws and try to dismember him?

Tentatively, he gently touched it. Nothing. All the really happened was that it’s spinning was now out of sync with the other rings. Hmm..

Okay so it wasn’t sentient and was rather smooth. What else? Wait…an idea pinged into 10-961’s head! He could try his in-built scanner. It was simpler than the handheld version, but was good for quick information – at least that’s what his HUD was telling him (whatever HUD was, kinda disorienting with it being on his optics…) 

The quick scan wielded more information than 10-961 was expecting, mostly because he felt- really felt! -an electrical surge go through his systems. Suddenly, all the information that was missing was all right there. From what 10-961 gathered, the simple scanner shouldn’t give this much info, so it must be from his hard drive! It even gave some information about this ‘Sonic’; a hedgehog who could absorb the energy of the golden rings with but a touch and something about ‘chaos sensitivity’. But that was it, his corrupted hard drive only giving information related to the scanned object. 

The information DID, however, give 10-961 an interesting tidbit. One could combine rings into a larger ring; the larger rings can teleport objects to a random location. Sidenote: some objects with tracker chips have not been found – further testing on hold. 

Well it wasn’t like there was much to do. Maybe it would be a nice surprise for his 274th brother!  
\--  
Less than 30 seconds later, 274 was punching the code in for room Gamma. In his other hand was a USB drive with all the information his brother was missing. When the heavy doors slid out of the way, Survivor was met with a bizarre scene. 10-961 was holding several rings on one arm while a larger ring lazily rotated in front of him.

“Oh! You’re back! Look what I-“ 

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

10-961 flinched at the volume of 274’s voice. Oh he didn’t think his brother would be mad!

“I uh.. wanted to-“ 10-961 didn’t get anymore out as 274 marched over, switched him offline, and crammed the USB with essential data into one of 10-961’s ports. Survivor, while waiting, was thinking two things; anger at his brother’s recklessness and relief he caught him in time before he was randomly warped. Survivor mindlessly kicked some of the rings that had clattered onto the floor out of the way. This room was more damaged than he previously thought. Rings weren’t supposed to blink into existence in testing rooms for fear of a new brother getting into big trouble and a team having to go rescue them; if possible…

“Error: Download Failure. Try Again?” 10-961’s optics pinged. 274 rumbled as he took the USB out. This wasn’t good at all. From what the archives tell him, this meant that the data WAS there, but totally and utterly corrupted. He’d have to have a medic stop by to fix it proper. He hoped it wasn’t 122.

10-961 onlined again and was now a little disoriented. 

“Your hard drive’s information is definitely corrupted… Do you realize what could have happened if you had taken a misstep and fell into the ring?”

“I would’ve warped?”

“You would’ve war-,” 274 stopped midsentence, baffled. “How’d you know that? Your hard drive -!”

“Is corrupted I know! But I found out something while you were away. The inform-m-mate-te-!!!” 10-961’s voice chip fizzled into static. “What’s happening?!”

**“WARNING: SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED.”**

“NO! NONONONO!” 274 screamed internally as his systems locked up and sparked. 10-961 shook and shuttered, but didn’t lock up. 274’s mind was shutting down and fading, but 10-961’s only slowed. And with his slowing mind, the world crawled with it. He saw his brother, 274, the only one he knew, dying before him; and he saw the ring spinning so slow it seemed not to move at all. He reached out and grabbed his brother by the shoulders, an act that took forever, before turning and half-jumping with shaking legs into the ring.

“SHING!”

And then they were gone…


	2. A Tumble on a Hill

A bright light was enveloping the port of Station Square as well as the people who were watching on. Not even a second ago, a gigantic robot, E-99, was standing at the center where he had dropped Sonic into the water below. But the Emeralds had fallen into the water too, and Sonic used their combined powers to become Super Sonic for the first time.   
He quickly demolished E-99 and tried to use chaos control to warp his friends back home.

But the attempted chaos control had gone wrong. Instead of bringing his friends home, Sonic accidentally brought part of home to Earth. As the light disappeared, everyone looked on in awe as a giant floating island surrounded by clouds came into view. It wasn’t the only thing affected by the chaos control.

On the floating island, in the Mushroom Hill Zone, one of the many hidden giant rings spun faster than normal. In fact, it was kept spinning faster and faster until…

“SHA-SHIIING!” It ejected two robots from out the center of itself!

They hit the ground hard and started to tumble down one of the many hills. One was offline, all his parts and pieces limp and unresponsive. The other, however, flailed in attempted to stop his falling. 

“Br-*vzckstz \r!” 10-961 tried to shout. His damaged processor was having difficulties operating, moving too slow to react in time to the various objects and obstacles he and 274 were hitting and bouncing off of. Rocks and branches scraped and dented their plating, paint being stripped off on contact and the tumbled wasn’t done with its’ onslaught. Soon, a series of mushrooms juggled and threw the pair into the air. 10-961 only had enough time to spot the rocks up ahead as he sailed towards them.

His protective eye-guards snapped shut automatically as he attempted to curl into a ball, but it wasn’t enough. He smashed face-first into a particularly large boulder that cracked his right eye-guard down the middle. His brother’s limp body had skidded off the top of the boulder next to 10-961 before halting a little ways away; ears bent 90 degrees from impact. 10-961 eye-guards snapped open after the threat of damage was gone, but the right one got stuck halfway as it tried to retreat back under the plating; leaving 10-961 with a squint.

**“Self Destruct: Deactivated”**

_“Sure doesn’t feel like it..”_ 10-961 thought to himself as soon as the message came through. Smoke was trailing out of both of them and all the extensive damage was more than 10-961 knew how to fix. But… he had to try something! He tried moving his arms, but they were even slower to respond than his processor.

 _“… this might take awhile, But I have to get up! Me and my brother are the only ones here!”_ 10-961 thought to himself. But how could he get over to 274? He had landed on his back and pushing up from that position was proving useless. The pistons in his arms couldn’t handle the weight. Then he tried rolling over, but accidentally pinned one arm underneath himself. _“A long, long while…”_

While 10-961 attempted to get to his brother, Knuckles had just arrived. He had glided from a nearby skyscraper and had just finished climbing up the rocky side of Angel Island. Though Eggman had just been defeated, he didn’t want to take the risk of him getting the Master Emerald. He wanted to get there as quick as possible. And despite getting to the island first, he had to walk the way to the shrine. Everyone else was on some kind of flying device. 

_“Maybe I should’ve taken the phone Amy offered!”_ Knuckles scowled at himself. A helicopter or plane ride would be great right about now! At least he only had to get through the Mushroom Hill Zone…

“I hope no one got on the island while I was gone.” Knuckles said to himself as he started to run past gigantic mushrooms. For the first few minutes, Knuckles saw nothing unusual or out of place. The mushrooms were growing fine and the local flickies were chirping. Even the grippy vines, as annoying as always, thrived. It wasn’t until he was nearing the end of the zone that Knuckles found anything worth noting. The flickies had gone quiet in this part of the zone. As if disturbed by something…

“What’s this?” Something caught Knuckles’ eye in the underbrush. Knuckles reach down and picked it up. “A bit of blue metal…?” Knuckles asked aloud. It was a small, broken piece of metal having come off of something. But what?

“Hmm?” Knuckles spotted a few smaller pieces scattered about. They were leading down from one of the many big hills. Knuckles sped down the hill in search of the source of the metal. He saw paint transfers on rocks, tinny shards of metal embedded into some mushrooms, and some claws marks that had been slashed into the ground. 

“Looks like signs of a robot! Eggman MUST’VE been here!” Knuckles thought angrily. Fists at the ready, Knuckles was ready for anything at the bottom. 

Except maybe two blue robot Sonic lookalikes; with one trying to shake the other awake.

“Eh?!” Knuckles shouted as he got close enough to see the scene in full. Electricity sparked off both frequently, the one still online twitching now and then. It twitched a little harder at the volume of Knuckles’ voice. 

“Are you one of Eggman’s Robots?!” Knuckles continued to shout. “Because you landed on the wrong island!”  
He waited for a response.

Slowly the online bot turned to face Knuckles. It took far too long in Knuckles’ opinion as the bot seemed to just stare at him once he made eye contact. Just as Knuckles was about to repeat himself, the bot… tried to speak. 

“ I dzbt(@n// n-n-nzzt/)# wo00P [/@ma izzt.” But for the life of him, Knuckles had NO clue what the heck that scrambled piece of a sentence was supposed to mean. 

“Um…” Knuckles muttered as he thought how to proceed. Ping! A thought came to him!  
Knuckles crouched down the bots’ level and lifted the two onto his shoulders. He waited until the online one reacted, as delayed as the reaction time was, before speaking again. Thankfully, he was just a hard twitch of surprise and a blurted beep.

“I’m taking you to Tails. He’s good with machines!” Knuckles stated determinedly. And off he marched with the two in toll. “So I can interrogate with you without that nonsense noise, of course!” A delayed beep and buzz followed.

Speaking of Tails…

He and Chuck where landing on Angel Island next to the Master Emerald along with a copter that had the rest of his friends. Sonic and Chris were waiting for them next to the emerald shrine.

“Wow! We’re really on a flying island?” Chris exclaimed as he took in everything. “How does it float?”

“Ha! Look straight ahead Chris and it’s pretty obvious.” Sonic laughed. They were sitting on the bottom steps of the Master Emerald Shrine.

“OH Right! I think I’m still a little fried.” Chris replied. While Sonic had healed all his physical injuries, Chris still felt exhausted.

“And I need practice!” Sonic said as he ran a hand through his quills. “I didn’t mean to bring the floating island to Earth. Chaos Control is lot more difficult to ‘control’ than I thought.” He sighed afterwards.

Neither of them could say anything else as the whole gang filed out and rushed towards the two. 

“SONIC! You had me SO WORRIED!” Amy yelled as she rushed over and hugged him with all her might; which is a lot. It HAD been a close call, so Sonic let her have her hug, but..

“Lo-oosen up… just .. a bit?” 

“Eh?”

“Can’t… BReath.” 

“Oh, sorry!” Sonic gasped as Amy relaxed her death grip. Sweet glorious air! 

“That was AMAZING Sonic!” Tails exclaimed, Chuck close behind with the same enthusiasm. “I’ve never seen the chaos emeralds do that!” 

“Yeah! I’ll have to try that again!” Sonic replied.

“NO YOU WON’T!” Came a shout from a little ways a way.

“uh..”

“You JUST teleported my home into the middle of STATION SQUARE!” Knuckles continued to shout as he briskly walked towards the shrine. He wasn’t quite in full-view yet, still in the forested area near the shrine.

“Yo Knuckles! You made it the party!” Sonic teased/shouted back. “It’s good to see you’re okay!” A trip and a shout of surprise followed, and a few clanks that sounded like metal. “uh… nevermind?” 

A grumble of ‘I’m okay..’

“You need help?”

“No! I got this!”

“What’s he even got?” Asked Amy curiously. A collective shrug from everyone as they waited for Knuckles to make his way into the clearing. When he did make it to the group…

“Uh.. Knucklehead? What’s with the robots?” asked Sonic

“The SONIC-like robots?” Amy added.

“The sonic-like robots that are sparking and smoking?” Chris finished. Tails had rushed to his plane for his toolbox and brought it over.

“They look heavily damaged Knuckles. What happened?” Tails asked as he put down his box near the group.

“You’re asking me! I have no clue!” Knuckles said back. “I found the two like this! This one was trying to wake up his twin here.” Knuckles heaved the two as gently off his shoulders onto the bottom steps leading up to the Master Emerald as he could. Both of them appeared offline at the moment. “They took a harsh tumble down in Mushroom Hill Zone. The one that WAS awake can’t speak right, his voice must’ve broke.”

“So these two are a complete mystery?” Chuck replied. “I guess we could fix them a bit, see – or hear- what happened.” 

“BUT only to hear what happened, okay? They could be Eggman’s robots after all.” Chris said with concern. 

“hmm…” Tails started to look over the robots. “There must be a panel somewhere…?”   
Tails had a keen eye for mechanics, and as he poked and probe the two bots, he noticed slight differences between the two despite the muck, leaves, and missing bits. The two had to be slightly different models; an older and a newer. 

“A-Ha!” Tails exclaimed as he pushed a spot on the back of the head just right. A bit of metal had popped loose to reveal wires and plugs and…

“Eggman’s logo!” Shouted Knuckles.

“But… it’s all scratched up?” Amy added. 

“Not to mention the wrong color… it’s also a bit creepier looking than normal.” Sonic remarked.

“Was Eggman’s logo ever different than what he has now?” Chuck asked. “Like maybe a prototype version?”

“No… and what’s even weirder is that the other one doesn’t have the logo at all.” Tails replied as he removed the paneling off the other metal sonic’s head.  
Just then, the metal sonic Tails was currently examining turned online. Tails was so spooked he slammed the paneling back into place. A series of garbled beeps and bloops followed as the robot frantically (or as frantically as rubbish movement could allow) looked at the strange people around him. 

“Uh… hi?” Cream squeaked out. “Who are you?”

“Tuuu^(*-nuuaAA-z-zzzzst_*ONenee” The metal sonic tried to say slowly, but the result was still far from understandable. “MaaaAHTELL—iz” The last bit came out a little better. 

“Okay ‘Mahtelles’, we want to know what happen to ya. Robots aren’t usually on Angel Island.” Sonic said. They all waited for a response.  
10-961 was baffled and maybe… just a little bit terrified. He wasn’t really sure WHAT these people were; they certainly weren’t made of metal like him. The red one hadn’t exactly sounded friendly, what with the whole ‘interrogation’ thing. Just then, a funny looking thing showed up.

“Lucky! There you are! Was wondering where you went!” Sonic shouted in greetings. It had a gold bell covering most of it, wings on its head, rabbit like feet, and various items attached to it. It let out a delighted beep and rushed over to hug Sonic.  
10-961 only realized it was a robot like him because of it arms and eyes. The strange, clunky looking bot seemed to like the blue one a whole lot. Maybe these people weren’t to be afraid of? But first he had to know who these people were. With effort, 10-961 lifted his hand and pointed at Sonic and gave a quizzical beep.  
“Excuse me?” Sonic didn’t get it right away what the look-a-like bot was doing. Lucky knew though, and repeated the motion, but at everyone. “Oh! You want to know who we are? Well I’m Sonic” 

Sonic! 274 had mentioned Sonic before! So this was who he was talking about? Sonic and co.? 10-961 wished his scanner hadn’t been damaged or else he might’ve gotten more information.

“I’m Cream and this is my Chao Cheese!” 

“Chao Chao!”

“I’m Chuck! Chris’ grandfather.”

“I-I’m Chris, I really hope you’re nice!”

“Tails here, as you can see by my two tails!”

“Amy!”

“and Knuckles…”

“Beep Beep!” that would be Lucky

That would be the ‘Co.’ part thought 10-961. He wasn’t sure why, but something in his damaged processor tingled with wrongness, but he couldn’t place why. They all seemed nice enough. Maybe it was something else?

“Since it seems you have a lot of damage, Tails here is going to take you to his workshop to fix you and your twin there.” Chuck said. “You okay with that?”  
10-961 thought for a minute. Although he just met these people, this WAS the best shot he had at getting himself and his brother in working order again. With a painfully slow nod, 10-961 and 274 were hoisted up and on their way to the Workshop.


	3. Questions, Repairs, and Tea

In the darkness, silence was heard.

Moments ago there had been some distinct, muffled voices filtering that bounced all around. There were rufflings and tings and clanks. And something strange that went hhaaaaAAAH~ then cut itself off. The last thing heard was of a soft thump on something distinctly not-metal.

10-961 shifted anxiously in his offline state. He wasn’t really sure what was happening; robots had a very black and white version of ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’. This inbetween state, caused by a damaged and sluggish processor, where doing anything took an eternity was very unnerving for 10-961. To think but unable to think clearly, to act in his head but not physically, and to feel very strange was strange indeed. He should’ve bolted awake by now.

Right now…

nOW!

Now?

Now

The word ‘now’ seems kinda weird now. Nu ow …no w… nuho.. nowww…noow?

10-961 realized his eyes had onlined while he had his little ‘what are words?’ moment. Oof.. Even solid items looked a bit funny looking.  But then his HUD caught his attention. It was spewing nonsense with the occasional clarity inbetween.

_Err4r-Eng67#$  dO#n…. Backup Engine S^p(3* AcT!^&3$5

_12 Ma70*mAlf^(U27*0N…. …Naaa….NANI-teS Act#$*O^#@  REPAIRS

_Re&!2ct 20 9rOCESS0r: PriorITy

_NaNtiES LoooW…. R3Ch4#@r3 NeeD3#

_WARNING!  3NiTY D373(tED!

Suddenly everything kicked into high gear just as 10-961 remember the noise, then silence. Unfortunately when he went from a setting of ‘slower than a snail’ to ‘racing sonic in a f1 racecar’; that meant flying limbs and whacking oneself in the face multiple times.  Startled by his sudden ability to move fast 10-961 thought he was being attacked!  It didn’t help that his HUD continued to obscure his vision with nonsense.

In Panic, 10-961 flailed at his imaginary foe. Loose rope that had kept him in relative place on a metal table were yanked and slashed at. When the rope got tangled in his flailing limbs 10,961 tried to shout for help. No noise came out of him, but the muffled voice did return.

10-961 froze.

He lifted his hand (having frozen with it covering his eyes) and looked across the room to see a sleeping Tails.  The fox was slumped over a wooden bench with various paper and pencils just about on every available area. Tails was using a stack of them as a pillow currently. Curious now, 10-961 attempted to get a closer look, but rolled right off the metal table with a thunk.

Oh right the rope.

The Metallix went to use his left arm to detangle himself

…

Where the heck WAS his left arm?

10-961 looked at his empty shoulder socket where his arm should’ve been at and he felt his panic coming back. It had to be somewhere! It was… being sold to.. wait no.. smelted  down–nO! beyond repai-STOP! Where were these thoughts coming from?! Come on it had to be in this room!

…What was in this room?

A Plane, lots of machinery, bits of scrap, an arm, blueprints, worksta-! An arm!

A blue and silver metal arm!

That had to be his! … aaannd it was right next to Tails…

10-961 started to tug at the ropes with his remaining arm in a bid to be free from the ropes. It took a couple minutes and a couple tense seconds whenever Tails shifted in his sleep. Once freed from the rope, 10-961 tip-toed his way over to the organic. He still wasn’t sure what to make of them. If they weren’t made of metal then what?

Curiosity got the better of him as he went to investigate, forgetting about his arm for the moment.

He figured that the twin tails would be a good start.

He was startled when his hand sunk into the fur.

Startled again when Tails’ Tails twitched and brushed up against his leg.

Startled THRICE when he heard a voice coming from a (now known) door.

“Yo Tails? You still in working away in there? It’s past midnight you kno-“ Sonic said before catching sight of the Metallix dive-bombing behind the metal table. “Uh?” Sonic moved in for a closer look.

Sonic peeked under the table to see the Metallix look like a bomb was about to drop on him. And honestly, 10-961 didn’t know why he did that. It only made it look like he did something bad.

“Good to see you up again!” Sonic whispered enthusiastically. “But um… what you doing under there?”  Sonic watched as the Metallix looked at him. Though his face reveal nothing, the Metallix was slightly shaking and that’s all Sonic needed.

“You scared?” Sonic asked sincerely and the Metallix nodded hesitantly. “I suppose you don’t know if we’re nice or not… but you can get to know us!”

Both stop when Tails mumbled in his sleep.

“In the morning though. I think everyone needs to rest from the busy day.” Sonic added as he went over to Tails and picked him up bridal styled. “Your twin is over there by the way.” Sonic pointed towards 274 who was leaning on the far wall; offline.

“And hey, maybe we could have a race to the mountain and back if you’re feeling up to it!” Sonic added with enthusiasm.

10-961 nodded as Sonic left with a ‘good night!’ He seemed nice enough, but without his data… how could he be sure of his intentions? He guessed he’d have to wait to find out. He sat there for a couple of minutes, listening for any sounds, but nothing could be heard; not even a peep from his brother, 274.

10-961 made his way over to his brother; the worst scenarios playing through his head. He was  dead, he lost his memories, he’d be alive but unresponsive, he’d – he’d. 10-961 mentally sighed. He sat next to his brother. He’d have to wait and see that, too.  He wondered how long he’d have to wait until morning because his thoughts certainly weren’t going to leave him alone.

He still had to get his arm.

10-961 mentally sighed again and got up. At least he didn’t have to tip-toe this time..

It was strange to see his arm not attached to his body. Maybe he could reattach it? He still didn’t have any data though. He glanced at the papers littering the workbench and decided that was a good place to look; some of them even looked like they had drawings on them.

The first one to be picked up was a note lamenting and praising the complexity of 10-961. Apparently just the arm was one big job in of itself. 10-961 didn’t like his chances of repairing this himself.  But at least all the dents and scraps had been fixed. A rather silly thought came to mind as he lifted his arm up.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all he had to do was stick it back in the socket and BAM! All fixed?

Humoring himself, 10-961 stuck the arm back into the socket and started to pretend everything was okey-dokey and he was all better. When he went to remove it however, it put up a bit of resistance.

Now 10-961 was baffled. It didn’t get stuck did it? He panicked slightly at the thought.

…Or was it really that simple?

10-961 held it in place a little longer to test that theory. Sure enough, it now felt more solidly in place than before. He wondered if he could move it? At first his attempts were fruitless, but after a few more minutes he managed to twitch his fingers.

It really was that simple..!

But after a while it seemed to stop, yet he hadn’t regained full mobility. Did he do something wrong? Was it going to be stuck like that now? His HUD pulled him from his thoughts when it started beeping.

_ERROR: NaniTES 3X5ausTED. ReC4arge n3eDed  

At least his HUD was starting to make a little more sense, but what were these nanites it was talking about? Another thing to wait on it seemed. There wasn’t much else to do besides look through the rest of the papers. They certainly needed to be tidy up somewhat.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“You What?!” Chris cried as Sonic told them that he left the Sonic lookalike to roam the workshop – without supervision.

“Easy Chris, he was more frightened than anything. I thought he needed some time to himself to take in everything.” Sonic replied. He really wasn’t all that worried, but the majority was.

“He could have sabotaged or taken something in the night!” Chris continued. “What if he ran off and now we have to go looking for him?”

“Well, let’s go look then!” Sonic said. “What happens happens.” Sometimes Chris thought Sonic was just a bit too casual about some things; like leaving a potential evil robot to muck about in the night.

“I hope he didn’t ruin my stuff in there…” Tails anxiously said as everyone made their way over to the door. Sonic carefully cracked the door open and peered inside. The room was still lit and nothing looked damaged.

“Well looks like everything’s fine.” Sonic said as the others peeked into the workshop as well. With that he let the door swing open.  “Hey ‘Mahtelles’! You in there?”  No response.

“I had to take his voice chip out Sonic, so I don’t think he can reply back.” Tails deadpanned.

“Oh.” Sonic said.

They all filed into the room in search for the robots.

“We should go to where we left his twin; I don’t think he’d have gone far.” Sonic said.

And lo and behold he was right. Sometime during the night, 10-961 had made his way back to his brother and was currently offline.

“Hey! My notes have been moved!” Tails said as he looked at the neat stack of papers. The shambled together blueprints had been rearranged and organized; some with new suggestions and questions that weren’t there before. The notes that lamented the robots’ complexity even had their own little pile. An entirely new note had been added as well. The writer was the same person who wrote down the new questions and suggestions.

“Let’s see here…” Chris picked up the note that had been left behind. It was a little hard to read because it was written in chicken scratch. But it read:

               

‘Hello!  I’m “Metallix 10-961” -(not Mahtelles)- I only onlined less than an hour before

you found me and my Brother 274. I don’t know much about anything  -(my data is corrupted)-  I wouldn’t be able to answer many questions except a few little ones.

-We arrived on the island via a giant ring

-Was a spur of the moment decision to use it to warp away

-We nearly died

-My brother knows you so he can probably answer more questions (mine included)

-If he’s still alive…

I hope I didn’t upset anyone.

 

Everyone paused as Chris finished reading the note aloud. But before anyone had a chance to make any comments on the note, 10-961 woke up. He had stayed up most of the night reading over everything that had been written, but ended up frying his circuits with all the technical terms Tails had used. He almost stayed there stubbornly trying to decipher it all when 274’s chest engine started.. clicking. It was 10-961’s only hope that maybe, just maybe, his brother was still alive. He had immediately rushed over, to make sure if – _when_ 274 woke up he knew he wasn’t alone. That he still had a brother left.

“You okay?” Sonic asked, bringing 10-961 out of his thoughts. 10-961 gave a thumbs up in response as he got to his feet.

“So…10-961..? Wanna chat over in the kitchen? We can ask each other questions over some tea!” Cream politely said as she stood by the door; cheese nodding in agreement.

“Like if you were being attacked?” Amy said.

“Why are you named by numbers?” Chris added.

“You look like me, so do you think you can keep up with me?” Sonic curiously asked. He really wanted a good race after yesterday.

“Or what’s your favorite color!” Cream added to lighten the mood further.

“You can even ask us any questions you have; I’d imagined having no data is a little bit frustrating, right?” Chuck said. 10-961 hesitated. He wanted to stay with his brother in case he woke up. But then again, besides the random clicking of his engine, 274 didn’t look like he was going to wake up anytime soon.

10-961 nodded. Sure, he’d follow them to this ‘kitchen’ and chat. Not for long though, maybe like ten minutes at best. He still didn’t want to leave his brother for too long.

“Alright! Come on it’s this way.” Cream said as she bounced through the door. As 10-961, stepped through the door to follow, he looked back at his brother. He lingered there for a moment before closing the door.

Yeah ten minutes was fine.

-Click click whirl-

Maybe…

“So did you have a name besides ‘10-961’?” Sonic asked bringing the metallix out of his thoughts. 10-961 tilted his head in confusion. Wasn’t 10-961 a name? But it was the only thing he was referred to as so he shook his head; no he did not have a name besides 10-961.

“Hmm.. Maybe you don’t have a name yet. You did say you only activated just yesterday.” Chuck said. 10-961 could only shrug. His brother called himself 274 – a number name- so he wasn’t sure if any of his brothers had non-number names like Sonic and his friends. He’d ask his brother later.

“What’s with the number as a name anyway?” Amy asked. Now this was a question the metallix could answer! The metallix spotted a piece of paper and pen; he still couldn’t speak so writing down his answer was obvious. When he was done he handed the paper to Amy.

“Because I’m the 10,961th brother created.” Amy read aloud for all to hear. “What?! That’s a ridiculous amount of robots!” Everyone was shocked like a strike of lightning at the revelation. There were that many Sonic-like robots potentially running around?! 10-961 quickly wrote down ‘I know!’ on the paper. Even he thought that was a lot.

“What was your brother number?” Tails asked. At least he was positive now that the two were different models – if only slightly. That many robots were bound to have tweaks and an occasionally redesign. It was probably a number like 9-800ish or something.

“274” 10-961 wrote.

“Eh?!” Tails squeaked. That was a huge difference in numbers! And there were only minor changes between the two! Either these robots or their creator weren’t very imaginative, or these guys were being made at lightning speed. But why?

“How much time do you think past between the creations of the two of you?” Tails asked, though he kinda doubted the robot would know.

A shrug from the metallix answered that of course.

He did not know in the slightest. Another question to ask 274. He did, however, find it weird that Tails looked a little… panicked at his brother’s number-name. He was about to ask Tails his question when Cream came over with the tea.

“Here’s your tea everyone!” Cream announced distracting everyone for the moment. A round of thanks was given as everyone received their tea. Except for 10-961 of course, but he didn’t know why he was excluded. He threw his arm wide then pointed at himself with his right hand; it screamed “HEY, what about me?” Tails was less focused on a robot wanting tea and more on the fact that the robot reattached his left arm – he hadn’t noticed it with how it dangled at his side unresponsive. But no one else knew about the arm and continued on.

“Oh, did you want one? I didn’t make it ‘cause robots usually can’t drink tea.” Cream explained. “Or any kind of drinks actually..”

oh

10-961 felt a little silly now. The no mouth thing really should’ve been a hint.

“Do you even know what you run on?” Chuck asked. “You know, what kind of fuel?”

The Metallix pondered this. He really had no idea. His HUD had said something about nanites needing a ‘recharge’. Before he could answer with the suggestion that it could be these ‘nanites’, Sonic interrupted.

“You know Tails, it will probably be easier if Metallix here had his voice back.” Sonic suggested.

“Oh? OH! Right! Let me go get that! Don’t worry 10-961, I’ll go get your voice chip!” Tails exclaimed, having been startled from his thoughts. The voice chip had been fried and Tails had fashioned a new one. It was just about the only thing he could fix or even remove from 10-961. The arm had been particularly stubborn, but the wires had been sticking out all wrong –not to mention zapping him with loose electricity. Even the broken eyelid had been easier to slip free and that thing was thoroughly wedged in.

As Tails thought hard about the strange robot he forgot all about the other equally strange robot. So engrossed in getting the new voice chip and his theories and questions, he failed to noticed the loud, sputtering clicks and whirls of 274.

And Crimson eyes slowly flickering online.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter starts showing more of the changes compared to the old version. Namely, 10-961 and they way I portrayed him trying to repair himself. Also he's a lot less cool and collective.


	4. Things Go South Really Fast

While Tails was busy getting the new voice chip, 10-961 was beginning to relax around the gang. It helped that they stopped asking things he couldn’t answer like ‘do you know a Doctor Eggman?’ and ‘What do you think your brothers do?’.

He liked Cream’s questions the most.

His favorite color was yellow – like on his hand. He liked how it popped from the cooler colors.

Not to mention she related to the worry he felt over his brother. She had lost contact with her mother a while ago and didn’t know if she was okay or not. Apparently she had been kidnapped by this ‘Doctor Eggman’ and Cream’s mother Vanilla had asked Sonic and his friends to go rescue her. It made him feel a little better that someone was in a similar situation; it made him feel less alone.

Cream was gathering painting supplies at this moment; excited to show her new friend how to draw people. She said it was fun and even relaxing! He could use both at the moment.

But as she was picking out the paint brushes, someone new popped in that the metallix hadn’t seen before. There were no bright colors on him and he stood straight-stiff as he walked in.

“Master Thorndyke, I’m afraid I have to drag you away for an important matter.” Mr. Tanaka said as he beckoned Chuck over.

“What’s the matter?” Chuck asked as he walked over.

“I’m afraid the Paparazzi are here. They want the ‘scoop’ on the battle yesterday. I’ve been holding them off for a while now and they’re growing restless.” Tanaka replied.

“Urgh… How many are there?”

“All of them AND they want Sonic.”

“Oh boy… hold on just a sec.” Chuck sighed and then turned to the group who were listening in. “I’m afraid I have to excuse myself, I have to calm the hornet’s nest. Make sure they don’t see our new friend okay? Knowing them, they’d probably get everything wrong! Sonic, you coming?” Chuck told the group.

“I was actually gonna take a nap – I don’t really trust most of them anyway.” Sonic replied. Chuck shrugged and made his way to the front door. He suspected that, but sooner or later the news crews would get a chance to ask Sonic questions.

Metallix tilted his head in confusion. He wondered what happened yesterday that overshadowed his own arrival? He wanted to ask the question and not write it down though; it took too long to write out simple sentences! Speaking of which where was Tails with that voice chip?  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tails was currently engrossed with putting the final touches on the voice chip. He thought he had completed it the night before, but he must have been so tired he forgot a few symbols in the code. He also realized how tired everyone else was, too. When they asked for their names – well… 10-961 had already said their names on the piece of paper Chris had read aloud; and yet they all acted so surprised by it when he told them after he woke up! Tails smacked the top of his head in a lighthearted manner. Maybe he should take one of Sonic’s famous naps this afternoon?

WHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

“Ach!!” The loud noise startled the fox. He whirled around to face the noise.

In the corner, 274 was shaking and puffing out smoke from his chest engine. Though Tails sighed in relief that it was white smoke; a coolant problem not a ‘will probably explode’ kind of problem. Still a serious and costly problem if left untreated. But he had to approach with caution. No matter how much he wanted to repair the metallix, he didn’t know what this one was like.

This was the Metallix that had ‘Eggman’s’ Logo – scratch out though it was – and seemed the most damaged out of the two. Who knows what circuits got crossed or what code got distorted. Tails took in a deep breath as the eyes flickered online and slowly lifted to look at the fox blankly. Just do this like Sonic; approach with a friendly demeanor. Maybe the bot wasn’t so bad? 10-961 was pretty nice.

“H-hi!” Tails stuttered at first –curse his nerves, but continued on. “W-we found you and your brother 10-961 on Angel Island. How are you feeling?”  
Tails waited for a response. 10-961 had been slow to respond in the beginning, 274 was probably having the same issues. The blank eyes cleared, truly seeing who was in front of him now…

The Eyes narrowed

The Shoulders hunched

The Claws flexed

And a dangerous voice boom out with spats of static:

“ **Y** o **U K** IlL **eD THE-M**.”  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey you guys hear something?” Amy asked just as Sonic jumped out the door to hang in his favorite tree.

“Sounded like a screech?” Chris said nervously. “We should go check on Tails.” Everyone nodded. 10-961 was worrying if something went wrong and he wanted to check on his brother too.

Before anyone could take a single step towards the garage, a loud BANG and BOOM shook the house, and a thoroughly terrified Tails sped like Sonic away from the noise and nearly crashed into the group. He was clutching the new voice chip with an iron grip.

“Tails what the heck happened?!” Amy cried as Tails held a hand over his racing heart.

“I-I !! He- he - The other one!!” Tails sputtered out, but couldn’t finish as the door he just exited was blow off its hinges.  
In the doorway stood 274.

He did not look as friendly as 10-961.

10-961 was meek, scared, and curious.

All that rolled off of 274 was pure unbridled WRATH. From the unhinged look in his eyes to the battle stance he took.

10-961 thought he didn’t look like he was all there.

The small moment to take in all this was brief and soon the *click! whrr! click! Of his engine rang. 274 blasted towards the group. In an act of instinct, Amy swung her hammer at 274’s middle and sent him crashing through the sliding glass door.

“Sorry 10-961 he startled me!” Amy cried as 274 got up dazed. But the eyes soon focused on Sonic and 274 let out a blood-curdled scream of fury.

“ **YOU KI-ILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!** ” 274 accused at the highest volume possible. 274 couldn’t think straight, everything was blurred, and emotion was starting to seep out of his monotone voice. His failure to assure their victory had cost him and his brothers’ everything. 274 had nothing left to lose.

He launched himself at Sonic with his razor-sharp claws that scored groves into the tree where Sonic had been standing a millisecond before. He ignored his internal systems warning him, he was deaf to them; all he focused on now was causing as much hurt to the enemy as possible. Before he offlined, too… He wouldn’t die lying down!  
He didn’t ask questions like why he was in a mansion or why Amy had a hammer and not a crossbow or why there were other humans about besides Robotnik.

A different sort of clicking was being heard.

Clicking of cameras and rolling film.

And a desperate Chuck, Tanaka, and Ella trying to hide the fight from the Papparazzi.

“Look I don’t understand! Killed who?” Sonic asked with hands raised out in front of him. That only seemed to anger the metallix further as he closed the distance between the two of them with the aim to maim.

“E-EVERY-YON-NE!” 274 Shouted. He slashed at Sonic, managing to nick his chest. Sonic dashed to the other side of the large yard, trying to get as much distance as possible between each other. Normally he’d have smashed the robot without a thought. But 10-961 was watching from the shattered door, paralyzed by fear and confusion. Sonic knew he cared; so he had to be careful with how he handled this.

“Okay it’s obvious your upset, bu-“ Sonic couldn’t finish as 274’s engine came alive with fire and rocketed him towards Sonic. 274 uppercutted Sonic with as much power as he had left; thankfully it was barely 10%, the only thing that hurt was biting his lip from surprise –maybe a small bruise later.

Sonic ducked and dodged again –this guy didn’t want to talk, but he had to stop him somehow! An idea formed in his head. Sonic made a beeline for the pool.

“Came get me you pile of bolts!” Sonic teased. The metallix was already angered enough that the comment wasn’t needed. 274 sped towards Sonic with claws outstretched aiming for the throat.

As 274 flew over the pool, Sonic jumped into the air. He planned to kick him into the water to short-circuit the robot. But 274 had fought Sonic before; he knew some of his tricks. In a move that Sonic didn’t expect, 274 veered off course slightly and got into a position Sonic couldn’t kick him from. 274 took the opportunity for a strangle hold.  
Sonic started trying to pry the hand from his throat while also trying to push himself away from 274. 274 held Sonic up – silently relishing that he might actually avenge his brothers by killing Sonic. He looked him straight in the face; he wanted to remember his look as the color drained away.

And saw green.

Emerald green eyes.

274 faltered. Sonic did not have green eyes.

“BROTHER! STOP!” a voice shouted; pleaded. 274 turned away from Sonic. He didn’t recognize the voice. It was scratchy and sounded like a filtered organic voice. But he did know who was standing before him with his right arm outstretched. 

“Please, put him down.” It was 10-961. Paint scratched and a few dents. Wide-eyed in terror, Newest of the Brotherhood of Metallix bringing Hope..  
A brother…

“He wants to help.”

A malfunction.

Terror threatened to seize 274’s engine. Memories of a brother reprogrammed into a bomb that nearly killed the Brotherhood of Metallix in the early stages of their plan. He hesitated.

10-961 wasn’t sure what was going through his brother’s head, but his eyes scared him. Red spirals dance off the central optic in a glitchy sporadic manner.

“please.” 10-961 said one last time. This was the only brother he knew and he didn’t understand why he was attacking Sonic.

Sonic was nice, Cream and Cheese were nice, everyone was nice. They didn’t even know who they were!

But 274’s thoughts had gone to dark places. He lowered Sonic.

“I WilL.” 274 said coldly. He let go.

It would take him 30 seconds to catch his breath.

It was enough time.

“But Only BECausE I NeED to TerMINATE YOU.”

He would not let this repeat. Never again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a picture for this chapter, but AO3 isn't letting it show ;u;


	5. Misaligned Information

Oh this was bad; Very very bad.

His anxious thoughts had not thought of this scenario.

He couldn’t imagine his brother saying what he said, and it _still_ didn’t register even as 274’s jet engine boomed out.  In that split second before 274 reached 10-961, he remembered his brother said something… similar-ish.

 _“_ _If you become unstable and try to attack, I’ll be force to terminate you…”_

He hadn’t attacked

But his brother was shouting ‘you killed them!’

Maybe –

10-961 had gotten lost in his thinking for a tad too long as 274 slammed him into the ground. 10-961 panicked as the front of 274’s engine glowed with fire; aimed right at him! At this moment, the one thing he had feared turned into an advantage. 274 was far more damaged and weaker than him.

With a shove, 10-961 was freed and scrambled away from the other metallix. The sudden attack left him unable to think straight. It took him a few seconds of tripping and tumbling out of the way before he came up with any sort of plan. He knew his brother was focused on him; so he had to get him as far away from Sonic and his friends as possible, lest someone get seriously hurt.

           _“If you become unstable..”_

10-961’s main engine roared to life. He didn’t know what was going on, but he had to help his brother somehow.  Did he do something wrong…? Guilt was creeping into his processor at the very thought.

_“Don’t apologize, let’s just get started and soon we’ll find the problem.”_

Using 274’s own words, 10-961 became determined to find the ‘problem.’ He didn’t know the answers yet; He had to go through a list of things to test for – like 274 had done for him. First he’d need some kind of ‘testing room’.

10-961 spotted a grove of trees ahead as he dodged another swipe from his brother. That looked like a nice testing ground, plenty of room to move, but also enough obstacles to hide behind.  But what was the list he had to go through? Another swipe added one thing to the forming list.

  -Reaction time

10-961 had suffered slowed reaction time from the self-destruct. He took a glimpse behind himself to look at 274 as he dodged a boulder and several trees. The way he weaved in and out made him worry a bit, but he wasn’t crashing into anything. So nothing _seemed_ physically wrong –at least for motor skills. A Pass for now. What else?  A blast of fire nearly hit him.

    -Power

He already knew 274 was in a weakened state and 10-961 could now see 274 was struggling to keep up. His fire was weak and his engine threatening to give out –he couldn’t do as much damage as he wanted to. Heck, Sonic probably would’ve kicked himself free a second later had 10-961 not said anything!

Okay so he was low on power. What else? His engine was shimmering with heat and his eyes were still sporadic looking.

So overheating and something else he couldn’t place…

The overheating was a problem. Plan A had been to tire him out until he couldn’t attack, but the overheating could bust something real good if it went on for too long.  10-961 took another glance back and found 274 nowhere in sight. He had disappeared! He stopped in his tracks. Did he accidentally leave him behind?

Something solid slammed into him and he crashed to the ground. 10-961 was stunned for a moment as he yanked his head out of the dirt. That had to have been 274, but where -?

274 landed with a harsh thud a few feet away from 10-961; murder in his eyes.

“WHY. TRAITOR. WITH THEM.” 274 shouted, but the words made little sense. His speech must be going off from overheating. That couldn’t be good –at least he wasn’t using his main engine heavily anymore.

“What..?” 10-961 asked with confusion- the filtered sounding voice echoing off the trees. Why traitor with them? The sentence didn’t make sense to him. ‘you killed them!’ and ‘why traitor with them’? It sounded like it was all directed towards Sonic and his group of friends.

…

274 never did tell him anything about Sonic and co. … just Sonic’s name and that he was with other people.  

That’s it.

10-961 brightened at having a lead and looked up enthusiastically only to see his brother rearing back his fist.

“REQUIRED INFORMATION MISSING!” 10-961 blurted out at his max volume. He had gotten lost in thoughts again and 274 had gotten dangerously close. 274 had thrown the punch just as 10-961 shouted but his words stopped him in time from clobbering 10-961 square in the jaw.

“Required information missing…” 10-961 repeated as 274 stared blankly at him. He kept his hand near his face just in case his brother wanted to continue that punch, but the fist uncurled and went limped instead.

“MisSING?”

“Yes, my data is missing remember?”

“miSsing.”

“Yes.”

“missing…”

Was his brother stuck in a loop? Maybe his processor WAS slowed down in a way or the overheating had fried his circuits.

“Missing… something.. not right.” 274 mumbled as he looked at the ground like it had all the answers. . Why was it so hard to think? He was.. attacking Sonic – Sonic had pressed the ..button, the really bad button  – the one that killed all - 10-961 was defending Sonic.  Reprogrammed by enemy most likely or… or.. What did 10-961 just say? Missing information? He had a fuzzy memory of a testing room? Testing room Gamma?

The Original Malfunction…

[98% likely reprogrammed… 65% likely reprogrammed.. 43% likely reprogrammed... likeliness falling…]

“Are you okay?” 10-961 hoped he hadn’t done something; 274 wasn’t very responsive at the moment; just kinda continued to stare off into space. 10-961 waved his good hand in front of him looking for a reaction. Eventually he got one.

“Recite Information on… on.. ON.” 274 struggled to use the words. Something wrong.  He needed more information. Something wasn’t lining up correctly.

“On Sonic and co.? Just their names.” 10-961 responded knowing what his brother was trying to ask. Right now he was just relieved that 274 hadn’t completely lost it –it meant he was still in there somewhere.

“…Recite names?” 274 said. Something something wrong. Hard to think. Red flashes?

“Sonic, Amy, Tails, Chris, Chuck, Tanaka, Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles.” 10-961 said. “And some others I think.”

Half of those 274 didn’t recognize. Did they make new allies in the heat of the moment? Where were they anyway? He didn’t recognize this zone. Why were they in a one of those ludicrously expensive houses anyway? They had been on the Miracle Planet and there weren’t any places like that. And something else… something else he had seen..?  

Sonic had looked different; was anything else different?

“Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot?” 274 inquired. He hadn’t heard those names listed off.

“Haven’t heard those names.” 10-961 said puzzled. Puzzlement was quick to turn to worry as 274 started to glitch out worse than before. “Brother!” He needed repairs soon, right this instant, or he might lose him again.

“Brother you’re overheating!” 10-961 cried.

*click click whhrr* was the only response he got from 274 and that nearly sent him into a panic attack. Was he shutting down? Did he have something stuck in his engine he hadn’t spotted?

Then he noticed the turning and clicks of his brother’s engine was pulling cool air into his systems with a soft whoosh. He had heard; he was trying cooling down. At least he thought so? 274 seemed to do that a lot, even when he wasn’t overheating.

“We need to get you repaired… But you seem to think that –and I think it’s what you meant- that Sonic and co. killed all our brothers.” 10-961 asked, but got no response. “But it doesn’t make sense because they didn’t even know who _we_ are. And they were actually quite friendly to me.” 274 continued to remain silent as 10-961 rambled. The only sound coming from him was the constant click whrr. 10-961 wondered why he did that.

Speaking of Sonic, he should probably be catching up any moment now or at least one of his friends.

“Last question. Why’d you attack me?” 10-961 asked as he wondered if the air whistling by was just that or Sonic zipping around looking for them. 10-961 almost jumped out of his metal when 274 spoke once more.

“I thought –reprogrammed –into bomb- never again.” 274 slurred out, eyes dimming. His head felt backed up. Nothing seemed to make sense. Their enemy hadn’t attacked? They were being _nice_???

“Tails doesn’t even know how to fix my arm!”

“Tails.. fix?”

“He got most the dents out at least.”

“NO. Tails.. Fix? Tails not fix –porker job. Sonic –no green eyes…’upossed be brown” 10-961 tilted his head in confusion as he helped his brother sit down. It seemed like his brother’s data wasn’t lining up to the reality? Was it a glitch in memory or part of a something bigger?

A gush of air that wasn’t natural almost tore the two from where they had sat down. 10-961 blurted out an alarmed beep as he grabbed the ground and kept 274 upright.

“There you are!” Sonic shouted. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t look mad either. Mostly startled and ragged as he held out his hand to help 10-961 up.

“You okay there?” The metallix nodded, but soon went to restrain his brother as he struggled to get up. 274 somehow managed to shrug him off, but he didn’t attack; he was full of too many questions to expend energy on his preferred action towards organics. Despite their aggressive demeanor – collecting data _should_ always came first; missing data could be the death of a metallix; like with 144 and the device Sonic slapped on his head. So Instead he now stood protectively in front of his brother; wanting answers more than anything. No surprises this time.

And now that he was thinking logically, not blindly attacking either of them out of intense emotions– he realized he could’ve gotten the both of them killed and with it any chance of reviving the Brotherhood. But the time to feel regret and guilt would have to wait.

“Something wrong.” 274 blurted as he eyed Sonic up and down. His HUD was all red flags and systems failure warnings, but he had to know the details. The differences were minute, but 274 knew what Sonic looked like.

He had six bunches of quills not three.

He had not been three inches taller nor could he have had such a growth spurt in mere hours.

 He certainly didn’t behave like Sonic –Sonic was a selfish stick in the mud. He did not offer a hand to help robots up, _especially_ a metallix. He should be shouting out a challenge or making a snide remark!

And he most certainly _did not_ have green eyes. He had a dark, almost black, brown.

The conclusion he came up with was far more complex than what he said next, but his systems were shutting down enmasse and his fading consciousness only had enough power for the absolute simplest and bluntest answer that wasn’t entirely correct.

“Faker.”

And then he passed out as his systems forced a reboot.

“HEY. You’re the robot lookalike!” Sonic said baffled as he caught 274 in his arms. What a weird robot!

10-961 could only stare as he watched Sonic shake his head in disbelief. Sonic then scrunched up his face as if he an unpleasant stench had assaulted his nose.

“Urgh this is going to be a nightmare taking the two of you back to Chris’ house.” Sonic grumbled. “The Cameramen caught you two on film and I just know they’re going to spread false rumors. Not to mention be surrounding the house.”

“Cameramen?” 10-961 inquired. “Those ‘Paparazzi’ people that wanted to talk?”

“More like take words outta your mouth for the drama of it all.” Sonic deadpanned, but switched to a lighter tone. “When I first got here they thought _I_ was robot! That spread like wildfire until I actually went out and interacted with the people here.”

“… Want do you think they’d say about me and 274?” The concerned metallix asked. His anxious thoughts were getting to him again and he hoped that his chances to get to know the world wouldn’t be skewed in some way.

“To be honest, they’d probably assumed you were sent to kidnapped or harm me and ran off because of ‘having your cover blow’ or something.” Sonic said. He couldn’t sugarcoat that; especially after the fight from yesterday. Everyone was tense and on alert for anything Eggman related.

“…”10-961 said nothing as he stared at the ground in thought. Should he tell Sonic what he learned from his brother? How he thought Sonic killed everyone and how he thought they turned him into a bomb? What about the misaligned information?

“When we get back can we talk about some things?” 10-961 asked softly. He was still unsure if he should. What if his brother had another fit if he said the wrong thing. What if Sonic and his friends thought them too dangerous and abandoned them? As much as he was getting comfortable with the group, he still didn’t know his place in the world.

“Sure, what about? I’m guessing something up with your brother?” Sonic replied as he started to walk in the direction towards the house, 274 in his arms.

“A few things, but one of the big ones is that his data wasn’t lining up with what was in front of him.” 10-961 said. He decided he’d start with the inconsistencies since his brother would most likely want to know too. 274 seemed very confused. Sonic looked at him questioningly for him to continue.

“To start: Do you know of a ‘Porker Lewis’ or ‘Johnny Lightfoot?’”  


	6. Figuring Things Out

“Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot?” Sonic repeated with a furrow. He paused to think midstride– maybe they were people he saved at some point? But nothing came to him and so he shrugged his shoulders.

“Never heard of them.. Are they important?”

“I suppose? At least my brother implied they were with _you_ , like they were your friends or something – like Amy or Tails. ” 10-961 said “He also seemed focus on your eye color. Said they weren’t supposed to be green but brown? Can eye colors change?”

“That’s… very odd? And no my eyes have always been green, maybe a little darker when I was younger, but never brown! Anything else?”

“He also muttered something about Tails not being able to fix things?”

“ _What?”_

“Yeah I know – that’s weird. I think he said Porker was the guy who fixed things.”

“Again – _What???_   Tails not being able to fix things! That’s like saying _water is dry_!” Sonic exclaimed with disbelief, and then put a finger to his chin. “He seemed _really_ out of it though..”

“Yeah, he was starting to slur and forget words. Couldn’t even say your name.” 10-961 mimicked Sonic’s chin-tapping before shrugging. “I’m thinking a glitch in his memory or.. maybe something else? I’m not really sure what.”

“hmmm…Definitely a big mystery, that’s for sure…”

The two continued on in silence as they walked back to Chris’ house. None of that stuff made sense; friends he never heard of, different eye colors, and Tails _not_ doing a very Tails thing. After a few minutes of questions unanswered, 10-961 broke the silence with something new.

“He thought you guys turned me into a bomb.” 10-961 said abruptly. He thought that might be useful to tell Sonic. It was one of the reasons he had been hostile to them. He also thought his brother  ~might~ be okay with sharing that – but didn’t think through how Sonic would whiplash his head so hard that his head looked like it had disconnected from his body for a split second.

“What? Where’d he get that idea?!” Sonic blurted. He may destroy and blow up robots regularly, but turning a sentient robot into a bomb was NOT his thing. That seemed a little too cruel and wrong.

“It happened before… I think. He did say ‘never again’ after he said the bomb thing.”

“But we never met before this. There couldn’t have an ‘again’ if it never happened in the first place.” Sonic scrunched his face in thought. “But back at the house he did a move that looked like he battled me before.”

“huh, he did?” 10-961 tilted his head in interest.

“Yeah, when I jumped near the pool. It was like he knew I was going to try and kick him into it,” Sonic pondered. “Most robots I go up against wouldn’t know to avoid something like that – especially on their first fight.”

“Wait –waitwaitwait.” 10-961 stepped in front of Sonic with a waving hand. “You fight robots?”

Sonic winced a little. Considering how he had destroyed robots before coupled with 274 words of “you killed them!’ – well… least to say this would _definitely_ be a sensitive topic.

“You know how we asked about Dr. Eggman?” Sonic started.

10-961 nodded. They did ask about him quite a bit. But what did that have to do with fighting robots?

“Well he builds robots.” Sonic mulled over his next words. “He builds robots to hurt people.”

“what?” 10-961 said quietly as his eyes widen.

“And I umm… protect the people he tries to hurt –so I end up fighting his robots a lot.” Sonic continued, gauging the metallix’s reaction – just in case things went sour.

“The day we found you and your brother.. it was immediately after very large and devastating attack. Half the city was destroyed because of one of his robots. Some people almost died.”

10-961 didn’t know what to say. He felt betrayed.. but it wasn’t really directed at anyone. He was mostly confused. From the sound of things, Sonic DID ki – destroy robots…

 like himself… like his brother.

But it was because he was forced to, to protect others from a madman and his creations.

“Did… did these robots.” 10-961 almost whispered. “Did they… _willingly_ do what you’re saying?”

“No,” Sonic shook his head. “Most of Eggman’s robots aren’t sentient. They don’t think and feel – not like you and you’re brother. They only do what Eggman programs them to do.”

10-961 thought for a long moment. About how Sonic and his friends had asked him if he knew of a ‘Dr. Eggman’. They must have been thinking ‘were you built by him, are you here to attack us?’

How many times have they fought against him and his robots?

How many times did the news crews see such attacks that their first assumptions would be of him hurting or kidnapping Sonic?

“Is Eggman the only one who builds robots?” 10-961 asked. Maybe he and his brother were built by someone else; someone out to do good.

“Technically, no.” Sonic said as they resumed walking. “But his are the most advanced; especially here.”

“Did you think we were built by him?” 10-961 asked – with hope, with hope that he wasn’t.

“We don’t know. You might’ve.” Sonic said as he watched 10-961’s shoulders slump.

“When Tails was checking you two over on Angel Island… Well your brother had Eggman’s logo on his backpanel –“ Sonic started to explain, but saw 10-961 begin to panic. “BUT!” he shouted, managing to lift a finger up in a “there’s more!” fashion.

“But what?!” 10-961 spilled anxiously.

“Calm down.” Sonic gently said, and then he continued. “ _But_ the logo was all wrong. The shape and colors weren’t right and it was scratched out like someone was trying to get rid of it.” The Metallix tilted his head again.

What Sonic had just said, it sounded a _lot_ like the confusion that his brother had a few minutes ago. Things that were similar, yet ‘not right.’ A logo with the wrong colors –Sonic with the wrong colored eyes.

 “That’s… It’s…” 10-961 fought to think of the words to describe the weird connection. “It’s just like what 274 was saying.”

“huh?” Sonic stared at the metallix.

“Things that are similar, but not quite right.” 10-961 began. “His data states you should have brown eyes – _but_ _you don’t_.”

Sonic ears perked up as he listened.

“And this logo, it’s like Eggman’s, but at the same time all wrong!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Sonic nodded enthusiastically. “Then that must mean your brother’s mismatched data, is definitely part of something else!”

“Yeah! There must be something bigger going on!” 10-961 excitedly exclaimed. So excited, in fact, that he forgot about the possibility of being built by a lunatic for the moment.

“hmm.. but do we have any other information that could help solve this little riddle?” Sonic pondered. He also thought to himself how they should be seeing Chris’ house any moment now –and he still didn’t have a plan on how’d they’d get pass the news crews.

“Well, me and my brother did teleport here via a giant ring. Apparently, some other brothers of mine had been testing to see where objects went when thrown through one– tracker chips and everything. But results showed that some tracked objects simply “vanished” like they didn’t exist anymore.” 10-961 rambled and would’ve continued to ramble, but stopped when Sonic held out his hand and then motioned him to be quiet.

Up ahead was the mansion buzzing with activity.

And no clear way on how to sneak past all of it.

“How are we gonna get back inside?” 10-961 asked. He hadn’t realized how many news crews there had been – at least ten were seen rolling film and talking away. A few were in the personal bubbles of Sonic’s friends asking questions that they didn’t seem too keen on answering.

“Beep beep!” The sudden noise right next to them startled the two; sonic nearly dropped 274!

“OH jeez, Lucky! You scared us!” Sonic whisper shouted. “Hey think you can help us? Pretty please? We need to get into the house without being seen.”

 “Beep!” Lucky said happily as he skipped off towards the crowd. Anything for his hero!

 10-961 didn’t know how this odd robot could help – he couldn’t even guess what he could do based on his odd design. And where had he been all this morning? He hadn’t seen or heard him at all until now.

But sure enough, just his mere presences seemed to attract every crew members’ eye towards him. Like they couldn’t help but look.

10-961 gave his own _confused_ beep at Sonic as the two waited for all the cameras to shift as well.

“Oh? Wondering how Lucky did that?” Sonic guessed correctly. “Lucky’s got this ability to bend probability in his favor. Or at least that’s how Tails’ describes it. Basically Lucky is… well, Lucky!”

“how… does that work?” 10-961 asked with bafflement. How could one even figure out how to program that into a robot?

“er.. well.. I’m sure Tails can explain it?”

“I read his notes – I don’t think I’ll even understand his explanation.”

“… Truue...” Sonic nodded in sympathy, but then saw their opportunity to move.” Anyway, let’s go!”

Quickly the two dashed across the back yard towards the house. Lucky was very good at his job and not one person noticed the trio disappear into the mansion.

“SONIC!” Someone shouted as soon as they made it in. Sonic and 10-961 both made a shushing motion as they turned towards the person in question.

“Oup! Sorry..”Amy apologized quietly as she brought her hands to cover her mouth. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, for the time being at least.” Sonic said as he tried to shuffle past her. Amy put her hands on her hips at the sight of 274.

“He’s not gonna try attacking again is he?” Amy said skeptically.

“er- well, he did calm down, but I don’t think he trusts us very much.” Sonic said with a sheepish shrug –avoiding eye contact. Amy raised an eyebrow at him.

“Listen, once everything calms down out there, and everyone is back in here, then I’ll explain what happened and so can 10-961.” Sonic said as he managed to get by the pink hedgehog.

“At least give me a short version? Or at least something to say to the creeps outside?” Amy exasperatingly asked.

“Uh.. hm.. well short version? 274 thought we turned 10-961 into a bomb and was… angry about it? And had a bad reaction?” Sonic answered as he readjusted his grip on 274. “There a lot more, but that’s the gist of it.”

“… Okay, um not sure if that’s a good answer to give the news crews?” Amy said with a concerned look.

“How about… ‘he had a damaged processor and thought we had done something bad first?” 10-961 tried. “I mean that’s not entirely true, bit too vague, maybe something like-?”

“No vague’s good, I can work with that.” Amy cut him off as she started to walk towards the door. “Also try going to the attic! Some of Paparazzi managed to trap Tails in his little workshop.” Sonic gave a thumbs up as he changed course to head upstairs.

10-961 marveled at how truly massive the household was as Sonic navigated the halls and stairs until they got to the entrance to the attic. It was rather narrow and lugging 274 up was a bit of a hassle, but they managed. 10-961 couldn’t help but feel safe in the smaller, quaint space of the attic; from the little window and small desk to the pile of beanbags that Sonic gently laid 274 onto.

“So what now?” 10-961 asked as he took a peek out the window. It was hard to see, but it looked like the news crews weren’t going away anytime soon.

“For now, we just gonna have to lay low until they go away.” Sonic answered as he too peeked out the window.

“How long will that be?”

“I’m thinking this might end up being a big story, so they might be here all day and then back again the next few.” Sonic sighed.  “ugh.”

“Well at least we’re in the house and not somewhere unfamiliar.” 10-961 said flatly. “You gonna go down there?”

“I’d rather not, but I’d also rather not be cooped up here either.” Sonic deadpanned then took in an extra deep breath. “Wish me luck!”

“Wishing you luck!” 10-961 said as he patted Sonic’s back in empathy before he disappeared down the attic stairs.

“Make sure your brother doesn’t break anything else!”

“I’ll try!”

Now what could he do in the meantime?

A few agonizingly slow hours had past as 10-961 waited for any of the household occupants to return from the grasp of the paparazzi. They just seemed to talk and talk and weren’t giving the group any breaks.

Nothing changed with his brother. He was still offline in the beanbags. So that left 10-961 to wander about the attic. 10-961 had gathered some of the other beanbags and made a pile for himself and found it wondrous to jump into them – well until one of his sharp edges nicked one and the insides spilled a little bit; he hoped no one would notice if he left it under the others.

He then wondered over to the bookshelf to see if there was anything interesting to read about; he reasoned it would help him understand this world a bit more, but a lot of the more academic books frustrated him with terms he didn’t understand and the teenage sci-fi stories he skimmed through baffled him with their so-called ‘science’. In the end, he kinda just stayed with the simpler chapter stories, ones that still had pictures in them here and there. There was one on a robot that learned to live in the wild and speak with animals that he sort of liked, he liked the main character a lot, but the amount of casual death in it left him a little unnerved so he put it down.

But it did give him light on why Sonic had been mistaken for a robot; the animals here were apparently similar, yet extremely different to Sonic and his friends. But where did Sonic and his friends come from? How did they get here? He felt the answers to those questions might somehow fit into the weird “similar, yet not quite right” phenomenon going on and so they rattled in his processor for hours yet he could not answer them.

After flipping through most of the books on the shelf, 10-961 decided the day would probably go faster if he offline for a bit. At least until it got a little darker outside and the news crews were forced to go home. So he –very gently- plopped down next to 274 in the beanbag pile.

He checked his brother over for any signs of him waking up, but he wasn’t even doing his click whirl thing; and his eyes remained dark.

After a bit of reflecting on the day’s events, 10-961 decided leaving a note for his brother in case he woke up before him would definitely be a good idea. He’d have to put it somewhere where he knew it’d be the first thing his brother would see.

So 10-961 quickly nabbed a pen and paper from the desk and scribbled a note; a note of reassurances and simple explanations. 10-961 paused as he checked his grammar and spelling before looking for a spot to put the paper. None of the obvious spots seemed ‘good’ enough for the metallix; there were many ways the note could be missed entirely.

So 10-961 thought the best place would simply be to tape it to his brother’s face – not thinking how silly it looked to others.

With a nod of approval, 10-961 settled down and offlined before any bad thoughts could reach his processor.

Turned out he didn’t have to wait much longer.

Sonic came stomping up the stairs just thirty minutes later with a deep frown and a headache.

“Hello, we’re back.” Sonic announced without his usual flare.

10-961 eyes slowly flickered to life. He noted it was still a little difficult to wake up immediately, but it was better than what it had been before.

“Huh? How’d it go?” 10-961 asked after he realized Sonic was back and had said something.

“Awful. I don’t know why they have to ask the same stinking questions over and over. we’ll recount our suffering downstairs to fill you in.” Sonic said as he picked up 274 with ease.

10-961 simply nodded as he helped maneuver his brother down the narrow staircase. He was curious and nervous to know if they cleared everything up or not.

The three made their way down to the living room where everyone was slumped over whatever couch or chair they could find.

“You all look drained.” 10-961 remarked as soon as he saw the lot of them.

“Be glad you didn’t have to join in on the fun mister.” Amy sarcastically said from her spot on the couch.

“They’re like if you combined genies with vampires.” Tails added with an exasperated sigh.

“Are you guys even up for more talking right now?” 10-961 asked as he looked with concern. They looked like they wouldn’t move let alone talk much for the rest of the day.

“Curiosity is keeping us going for the moment!” Chuck said. “Now before we get into our end with the news teams, what happened between you and 274? Sonic mentioned something about things not lining up?”

“He also said something about your brother thinking you were turned into a bomb by us?” Amy added sluggishly.

“Well, yeah. That’s why he attacked me in the first place. He thought you guys reprogrammed me into a bomb!” 10-961 began with his tale. “Apparently that happened before and he wanted to prevent it.”

“But we’ve never seen or heard of you guys before.” Chris pointed out like Sonic had previously.

“That’s part of a little mystery we have. Things that are similar, yet not quite right.” 10-961 answered. “A lot of things aren’t adding up.”

“Well, what are those things exactly?” Chuck asked.

10-961 gave them the run-down; the eyes, the logo, unfamiliar ‘friends’, Tails not being a mechanic, and the fact that 274 had met them before and yet they didn’t; basically how everything just wasn’t lining up correctly on both ends.

“It’s all just really strange.” 10-961 finished off.  “I have something to ask too; I think might fit into this equation, but I’m not sure.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you guys get here?”

“huh?” the group collectively uttered.

“I was reading some books and it’s clear the ‘animals’ here aren’t like you guys.” 10-961 explained. “I mean I was warped here with a giant ring. Did you guys get here that way too?”

“That’s a good observation there 10-961!” Chuck remarked. “Sonic and his friends did warp here by accident with Chaos Control.”

“Yeah we’re not from Earth, we’re from Mobius!” Sonic added with a grin. The word clicked with 10-961. 274 had mentioned that word in the testing room!

“OH!  My brother asked me about that when we were testing my databank. I’m positive we’re from there too!”

“Better be, or everything is just a bizarre coincidence.” Tails chuckled. “But rings ARE made of chaos energy too, like the chaos emeralds that caused _us_ to warp with chaos control. So we all got here basically the same way. However, rings aren’t as powerful and usually they don’t warp very far, usually just from one zone to the next – though more often than not they lead you to the special zone. How would the ring be able to warp you to Earth?”

“Maybe the timing had something to do with the extended range!” Chuck exclaimed, excitement in whatever vague idea his tired brain provided him. “10-961 and 274 landed on Angel Island just when Sonic used Chaos Control, right? I’m thinking, somehow, when they warped with the ring it must’ve gotten linked to Sonic’s attempted chaos control!”

“That would explain that mystery, but the inconsistencies are still the-oOH!” Tails began, but realized something mid-thought. “What happens if when Sonic was trying to use Chaos Control he didn’t just link to OUR Mobius, but to another one as well!”

“I’m lost..”Cream said as Cheese nodded in agreement.

“Yeah I’m lost, too. Wouldn’t it make more sense that we warp onto Angel Island _just_ before Sonic warped it here?” 10-961 asked. “What’s with this _other Mobius_ thing? Shouldn’t there only be one?”

“Well.. you see, that does sort of make sense, but it still leaves the inconsistencies.” Tails tried to explain. “So the only other logical answer is that you guys come from _A_ Mobius, but not ours!”

“I’m still not following…”

“He means is that you come from another universe.” Sonic simplified as he absentmindedly scratched his ear with a grin. Tails really ought to know that 10-961 still didn’t know much about anything.

“… what.” 10-961 said. “I… I know what ‘universe’ is. But how can there be ‘another’ one?” He felt a little stupid after seeing everyone else’s faces brighten up in understanding and excitement at solving the riddle like in was an easy thing to understand.

“Well, for starters, there are multi-universe theories in which different, but similar universes run parallel to each other.” Chuck said. “Each one is thought to have the same people, same planets, same everything; but the choices made in one universe are different from the next.”

“Like if I had never went out on _that walk_ in the woods- I would never have met Sonic.” Tails added as an example.

“And in this universe, I must’ve never met Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot.” Sonic continued with another.

“Hey wait! Johnny Lightfoot?” Amy asked surprised.

“Hold up. You recognize that name?” Sonic questioned.

“Yeah, He was my neighbor! We used to play fight with sticks and stuff before having tea.” Amy recounted happily before drooping. “But he moved away when I was nine out of the blue and I never found out where to.”

“Huh, so at least we know he exists in our universe too.”  Cream said with a finger to her cheek. “I hope you run into him again one day Amy!”

“Okay so that means.. we’re from a different universe where things played out differently? Like Johnny not moving away, right?” 10-961 guessed. It sounded about right from the examples the group was giving.

“Right!” Chuck practically cheered with a raised fist. “That’s exactly it, and it would explain all the little things not adding up because things are different in your universe!”

“I wonder what everyone is like in your universe?” Chris pondered aloud.

“Only my brother would know.” 10-961 muttered while looking at 274 still in Sonic’s arms. “I don’t he’s gonna wake up anytime soon to tell us…”

Everyone quieted for the moment as they remember about the other bot in the room. The one that was a lot more violent.

“Is it even possible for us to get back to our universe?” 10-961 asked. “If we can’t… what are we suppose to do?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Chuck replied as he got up and sat down next to the metallix. “For now let’s think of the present. You and your brother still need repairs and we also need to figure out what kind of fuel you run on.”

“Alright.” 10-961 said. Frankly he was a little surprised that the group would even still want to repair his brother after what happened today. But it all sounded like a good place to start.

At least until enough repairs were made that 274 could better explain his side of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally done rewriting the old chapters! Now after some six odd years since I originally posted the story, I can finally progress the plot! \\(*O*)/ 
> 
> (This one ended up a whole lot longer than I usually write! I just kept writing and it ended up twice as long, jeez! I didn't een get to the scene I was supposed to write!)


	7. Truth, Lies, Errors

“Mom and Dad are going to be so angry…”

The group stared at the blown-off-its-hinges door that laid on the ground. It was cracked in the middle and it was littered with singes and claw marks. Bits of the splintered wood stuck into the carpet and some of the paint on the walls had been torn off.

“They’re going be so so angry…” Chris lamented.

“Least you’re not strapped for money?” Amy said with hesitation. They were rich after all. What’s one door needing to be replace with some spackle and a fresh coat of paint for the walls?  

“Urgh… SO! What are we going to do with 274 for now?” Chris changed the subject quickly.

“Having a little debate on that.” Tails butted in. “He needs to be in the workshop so I can get a good read on his condition and make sure he CAN wake up again – but we’re not sure what precautions we should take.”

“We can’t tie him down.” 10-961 interjected hastily before anyone could say anything else.

“But you saw the damage he did! He needs some sort of restraints!” Chris pointedly said all glaring at the destroyed door. He didn’t want another door blown off or some of the more irreplaceable items being destroyed. Chris slapped his head in agitation as he remembered the sliding door was going to need to be replaced, too.

“Nope, no way, we need him to know that he’s not captured or anything because then he might never trust you guys.” 10-961 countered. “I think trying to gain that is the best option.”

“Okay no ropes!” Sonic agreed just as Chris was about to argue back. “I would try getting out as fast as possible if a bunch of people who I didn’t know strapped ME down.”

“… hrm…” Chris noised his displeasure, but Sonic was right he supposed. “Okay, no tying him down, but we do need a back-up plan in case he goes berserk again.”

“I can try setting up a force-field of some sort around him. Only activated whe-I mean IF he tries to fly off suddenly.” Tails offered as his tails swished slightly. He had quite a few designs in his head already; something small and concentrated.

“Perfect!” Chuck exclaimed. “We’ll help clean this up in a bit, but for now I think we need to fill a certain someone in on our side of the day right now.”

“eh, me?” 10-961 blurted. Chuck simply flashed a grin and pushed the metallix back in the living room where the tv was.

“I think the best way to show you what went down is through the news itself! It comes on in a few mintues.” Chuck smiled innocently as plunked the metallix on the couch and nabbed the remote.

 “Wait, didn’t you say not to trust the news people?” 10-961 questioned worriedly as the tv booted up.

“I wonder if they had the time to even edit it.” Sonic chimed in before yawning and plopping down with the rest of the group.

“Besides that, being exposed to it can help you avoid misinformation in the future.” Chuck added on, seemingly full of energy once again, but then grimace suddenly. “But also, we had to… switch some things up in order not to cause panic to the general public…”

“like..?” 10-961 scooted a little closer – an invite for Chuck to elaborate. Tails was the one who spoke up however.

“Well… We had to change your names for starters.” Tails started. “Cause we’re ONE HUNDRED percent certain people would _freak_ if they found out there is about 11,000 of you guys.”

10-961 imagined it for a moment, of not just him and 274, but of all of his brothers. And with how hostile Dr. Eggman and his robots sounded and how 274 attacked. Yeah 11,000 brothers would be more than a _little_ intimidating.

“That’s fair. So what did you guys call –“

**!BREAKING NEWS!**

 

The TV suddenly blared to life! The Chorus of complaint arose immediately afterwards.

“AHH!”

“CHAO!”

“OW MY EARS!”

“CHUCK TURN IT DOWN!”

“WHO LEFT IT THAT LOUD?!”

10-961 automatically turned off his audio receptors as the TV continued to be overly loud as Chuck scrambled to grab the remote.

“I’m so sorry about that everyone! My show is always so quiet that usually turn up the sound so I can hear it. I must’ve forgotten to turn it back down yesterday!” Cream squeaked out once the volume went down to a reasonable level.

“That’s okay, I think they make the news station too loud in the first place Cream.” Sonic said as he rubbed his abused ears.

10-961 internally panicked as he tried to find out how to switch his hearing back on and missed a good portion of what the group and tv were saying.

“ -ly a day after the horrendous attack by Dr. Eggman that left the city in shambles, a robot was seen attacking the thorndyke residency where Sonic and his friends are staying.” Was the first thing 10-961 heard once he found the volume settings in his jumbled mess of a HUD. Oh Boy…

“unfortunately our cameras weren’t able to get a clear shot of the ensuing fight except for this bit here were it seems a blue robot look-a-like had Sonic in a chokehold before a _second_ one came out and ran off with the first one! At first it seemed like Dr. Eggman was at it again and that this was another failed attempt at Sonic’s life. However, that was not the case! According to Tails the fox, these were HIS inventions meant to protect the floating island that appeared over station square the day before. Tails said something had damaged the two and he was trying to access their memory files when MS-1, also known as Metal Sonic 1, malfunctioned and thought the group was hostile intruders looking to destroy the flying island.” 

10-961 tilted his head as he listened to what the lady was relaying to the public. At least what the group had told them to protect him, his brother, and put the public’s fears to rest. He just had to remember –and remember to tell 274 WHEN he woke up – that This was what their cover-up story was.

…

He kinda still wished that this didn’t have to happen; to lie. How easily scared were people? How little trust did they have in each other? Do they always say bad things about others?

Could he trust others himself?

How could he tell the truth from the false?

Chuck said he’d be able to tell and so far that was true – his brother wasn’t MS-1 and (he guessed) that he wasn’t called MS-2. And Tails didn’t invent him… maybe… no the other Tails didn’t build things like this one did apparently. Or maybe he did? Maybe he just wasn’t at the same level yet like this one? But that still meant that he wasn’t built by Tails. Maybe by Porker Lewis? But 274 didn’t like any of them either so… so..

“-S-2 eventually stopped MS-1 in what could only have been a massive fight. Our reporters went to the forest to gather evidence an-“ Wait that wasn’t right. Sure they fought a bit, but it was short and resolved in way that was open to reason and maybe understanding.

They made it sound like robots couldn’t reason and deescalate situations!

                >3rr0R!

10-961 tensed up as his thoughts kept jumping from one bad thing to the next. He was starting to get lost in them, drowned in how many there were and the implications and underlying battles he’d have to face from people he didn’t even know. All because he was a robot, a machine, something that was only supposed to take orders and follow them out.

“Hey 10-961, you okay?” Sonic spoke gently with a hand close but not quite touching his shoulder.

“I-I think I-I just-“ 10-961 struggled to express the thoughts and emotions that ran rampant in his head. He didn’t know where to start. 10-961 brought his knees to his chest and held them tight as he tried to – to- he wasn’t sure anymore the whats and hows and whys of saying his thoughts. He didn’t know how to.

“Okay something’s definitely bothering you.” Sonic continued after 10-961 went quiet and starting staring off into space. “How you feeling?”

How was he feeling? 10-961 brain felt too fried to think about how he was feeling, everything was too much. Why did things happen the way they happened? Why did people have to lie? Why did people assume things about others before they had all the facts? Why, why, why, why?

                >D4mAge!

10-961 remained silent.

Sonic gave a small, but also knowing frown and turned to the others.

“Hey Tails, why don’t you go do the back-up plan with his bro? And Amy, can you get Cream and Cheese ready for bed? You, too Chris. Unless you have homework to do. I think everyone needs to snooze a bit earlier today if possible.” Sonic said, giving an empathized nod to 10-961 at the last bit.

“Yeah, I guess that’s enough of the news for today anyway. Get the gist of it and how-“ Chuck started to ramble, but the Look he received from Sonic was enough to get him to stop. The furrowed brows and the burning eyes of ‘not now’ were enough to stop anyone “Anyway… rest up everyone.”

Everyone nodded remembering how tired they all were and of things they needed to do. But they understood most importantly that Sonic had noticed something they had missed in 10-961, and that they should give him room. But little Cream had one last thing to say before she left.

“I hope you feel better soon 10-961.” Cream said quietly with worry. Then she was gone from the room, little footsteps growing quieter and quieter.

10-961 really did like Cream, she was nice. That was a truth.

And Sonic…

Sonic sat down next to the metallix without another word and laid back, arms behind his head.

He didn’t know what to make of Sonic.

He had been nothing but kind to him, but he fought robots like him –sort of.

Was his brother following orders from someone who lied or hurt others? Like Dr. Eggman?

Who could he trust? Who was right and who was wrong. Was the ‘other’ Sonic wrong and that made 274 right? But would 274 be in the right now? Or was he is the wrong now? Had he always been wrong?

“You’re shaking.”

10-961 jolted upright. Was he? He couldn’t tell.

“How you feeling right now?”

                >*4RNING!

“I – I don’t” 10-961 stammered. There was so much going on in his head.

“Just blurt one out.”

“But I –“

“Don’t think, just say one.”

Just one? JUST ONE? There was too many! How can one just pick one?! Too ManY!

“FrazzledstressedconfusedanxiousscaRedTerrifieDWorRieDTeNSEtURNeDARouNDOVERWHELMED-!!“ He couldn’t stop.

 “oh Oh –Hey! It’s okay!” Sonic tried to sound calm, but when 10-961’s eyes started to spiral like his brother’s had – well you had to wonder if something had been damaged in his mechanical head. And what problems it could bring.

“IT’SNOTOKAY.” 10-961 blurted loudly and suddenly. Click click whrrr.

                >ERROR!

“Easy. It WILL be okay. Just…” Sonic paused. He had never really been good at talking. What would be the right words?

But maybe words weren’t going to work.

“Hold on, let me grab something.” Sonic said and sped off.

10-961 sat in silence, eyes spiraling, body shaking, and his engine making the same sound 274’s made.

Click click whrrrrrr!

…

Click Click whrrrrrrrrr!

…

Click click –

10-961 felt something heavy drop on his shoulders and gentle hands arrange it to be flat and even.

rrrr…..

…

rr…

10-961 clutched the thing around his shoulders and pulled it closer to his body until he was completely wrapped in it. Some tense seconds past before the metallix’s body slacken and drooped.

“Tired…” Was all 10-961 uttered.  He had stop shaking and his eyes had returned to normal.

“You’re probably running on fumes too, ya know?” Sonic said after he was sure 10-961 had stopped panicking.

“Like fuel-wise?” 10-961 sluggishly inquired.

“Maybe. But mostly up here.” Sonic emphasized with a tap on his head. “Your mind’s run down and you need to rest that, too.” At least that’s what Sonic thought. Could robots with their computer brains get ‘tired’ like that?

10-961 nodded weakly without another word.

Sonic took that as a yes, they do get tired that way.

“Would you like to stay here? Tails is still busy working away on the shield bubble so It’ll probably be noisy. Or would you like to stay here?” Sonic asked with nonchalant-ness.

 10-961 eyes widen. He wanted to stay by his brother’s side, but was also fearful of what might happen when he wakes.

“Don’t know?”

“No… I want to make sure my brother’s okay, but..” 10-961 admitted with a downcast look to the floor.

“We could set up a camera in the workshop, that sound good?” Sonic offered.

“…That’ll work.”

“Okay I’ll go get it set up for you. You sit there and rest your shiny metal head!” And then off Sonic jogged to the garage.

10-961 had planned to stay awake long enough to get his end of the camera, but his body was shutting down faster than he anticipated and was out faster than a blink of an eye. But not before he saw a series of alerts appear on his HUD

>25% P0W3RR –R3FuEL n#E5Ed

>Nan7TES 0FFLi2E –REC&R5E NEeD3)

>W4RNING! Le@KAge D3TECTED!

>WaR7NIGN! REPAIR ~5637* L7NES!

>WARNING! Re9@~_-91 4@ 0*~

>URR54ent! CH40S 3N3grY 9&*~--_!!@AG312 o)(@@@@&*!

He ignored them.

They had been flashing all day anyway since the fight.

What’s another night?

                >URGENT! D4M@geD! T4KN! F43L! CHAOS!

He’d be fine.


End file.
